First Half Milestones
The following list is the milestones needed to be achieved for the first half of training for the Boston Marathon. This is not the training program for anyone else but myself (so all you people out there who have a hard time assimilating information, please don't worry, your way still is best for everyone else).
- Strength and Agility Foundation (November 2014)
I kept it simple, I followed a set program that already when through Quality Assurance, leveraging the funding and trust of a well known established company. As well, the program does reflect athletics and really helps to balance out the body. With that, the program I followed was a month cycle of Insanity Asylum.... Step ladders are amazing! - Aerobic Discipline (December 2015)
I increased weekly mileage while at the same time monitoring my heart rate, making sure that I didn't go above 160 bpm. Also, I made sure to keep a consistent pace throughout my runs, which is the discipline and not so easy to take it easy.
The weekly goal was to progress above 100 km to 130 km per week. - Mileage Possibilities (January 2015)
keeping with the 60% effort of aerobic training, I just wanted to see how high I could go with the weekly mileage. I mostly did this just to keep the training interesting while I couldn't work on speed nor time. I hit up to 170 km for a single week. The average was still above 100 km per week. - Speed Turnovers (Throughout)
The only speed turnover that I achieved for the first half of training was how fast I could eat foods directly after finishing a workout. And how quickly I could turnover that food to be digested quickly enough for my body to keep from exhausting itself. Which meant a lot of split pea soups, chicken noodle soups and a whole lot of vegetable smoothies.
For dinner, in order to keep my heart from attacking me and killing me, I made sure to eat cacao and carbs. So, I always had a pot of Quinoa ready to eat, to which I would turnover throughout each evening. - Hill Climbing (Throughout)
I've been generally climbing hills almost every run. Yup, I'm hill hungry. On average, it's been about 300 m climbs per week. The highest climb is over 500 m. All of the climbs, while keeping my heart rate at 160 bpm, which meant that I was keeping my aerobic engine going, and running very slow.
Second Half Milestones
My running coach will be reviewing this section (and editing it), since this is the section of training where injuries can disrupt the entire training regime.- Strength And Agility (February 2015)
For the month of February I will be solidly completing the cross-training program provided by the same company, Beachbody, called Insanity Asylum Volume 2. What I hope to achieve from this program is to flush out any glitches from the first half of Boston training, while at the same time giving me the foundation to build up on mile repeats, hill descending and other lactic threshold training. - Anaerobic/Lactic Threshold (February - March 2015)
I should start small doses of intervals. Not so much mile repeats and if, slower than intended pace. These workouts would be 1 or 2 days a week. - Mileage Peaking (throughout)
I need to train for tapering. Most people taper once and then hope for all the magic. I am planning to taper through the last half of the training several times. There will be three tapers - all aligned with races: First Harry Rosen 8k, then Slainte 5k, then ATB 30k. All of them lowering mileage and then building back up again, much the same as tapering for real race day. - Speed Turnovers (weeks before the race)
Under the guide of my running coach, I will be engaged mile repeats. I need to choose mile repeats over track workouts because I just don't have enough experience to handle track. I require longer doses of pain so that I can better learn to pace. Shorts spurts of speed forces me to use my fast twitch muscles which I find have no value in these longer distance races. - Hill Descending (February - March)
I am assuming there may be some injuries exposed with this training, so I need to get use to this quickly. I will need to learn to run downhill quite a bit and take it on for a longer duration.
